Cassette Review // Tongue Depressor and John McCowen "Blame Tuning" (Full Spectrum)

https://fullspectrumrecords.bandcamp.com/album/blame-tuning

This cassette begins with this deep, bass drone.   As it moves it begins to feel as if we're at the bottom of the ocean.   Some crackling comes through, with electronics and this just all feels now like it's moving.  It's that sound like a metal detector mixed with the electronics and deep bass drone that brings it all to this one relaxing lull.   Though slow moving, I imagine everything in this path getting wiped out.

As it's creaking and shaping itself into these different soundscapes, I can just feel the electronics coming through though I know that bass is staying consistent back there.    Overall this sound can just feel like it's putting me into a trance as well, as it feels hypnotic and in that way becomes something which you can just put on and completely zone out while listening to it.   Louder and louder the screeching comes through.

The sound has shifted a bit now to where it feels like a lightsaber coming through more than anything else.    That level of loudness is spelling complete and utter destruction, and the more I listen to this the more I realize that while it fills me with a sense of calm other people (normal people) might not be so easy going.  This might actually scare some people or at least put them off guard.   Electronics scramble through and it feels like everything is falling apart.

On the flip side there are these deep bass strings which are accompanied by electronics and that is how I tend to think of Tongue Depressor as sounding.   A scraping sound can be found within here as well.   A sort of clawing, as if trying to dig your way out of some place you are trapped in.   A bit of that modem sound is in here as well.   The electronics cut through now, like a sword but also a lightsaber at the same time.  I haven't heard this type of thrashing before, it's definitely unique.

As the sound also shifts its focus back to the winding bass, I think of this dirge and you can hear creaking as well, as if we're on some old ship at sea, sailing around.   Tongue Depressor doesn't always immediately strike me as pirate music, but I suppose if you listen to it enough it can begin to take on those qualities.   It slowly creaks through the cracks and you can just feel it growing now with a sense of radioactivity.  

I can't quite put my finger on this one sound within this cassette.  At times it sounds like the way two knives would be sharpened together and other times it feels like some sort of metal not cutting through air but cutting through some surface.   Electronics also still bring on those certain modem feelings and the bass ties it all together in this somewhat haunted manner.